1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a top-cover-tape feeding apparatus for feeding a top cover tape as an element of an electric-component tape and a top-cover-tape treating apparatus for treating a top cover tape, and in particular to the art of improving the reliability or stability of feeding of a top cover tape.
2. Related Art Statement
There is known an electric-component ("EC") tape which includes (A) a carrier tape having a plurality of pockets which are formed in a lengthwise direction thereof and which accommodate a plurality of ECs, respectively, and (B) a top cover tape which closes respective upper openings of the pockets. When the ECs are supplied from the EC tape, the top cover tape is peeled from the carrier tape at a position on an upstream side of an EC-supply position where each EC is taken from the pocket, as seen in a tape-feed direction in which the EC tape is fed forward, and then is fed by a top-cover-tape feeding device. The top cover tape is treated in various manners.
For example, Japanese Patent Application laid open for inspection purposes under Publication No. 6(1994)-232593 discloses an EC supplying unit which includes a collecting box for collecting a top cover tape peeled from a carrier tape of an EC tape. The EC supplying unit has a top-cover-tape feeding device which includes a pair of tape-feed rotatable members, and a rotary drive device for rotating one of the two rotatable members. The top cover tape peeled from the carrier tape is pinched by the two rotatable members, which are rotated in synchronism with the feeding of the EC tape by an EC-tape feeding device. Thus, the top cover tape is fed while being peeled from the carrier tape, and is collected into the collecting box.
However, since, usually, a top cover tape is thin and flexible, it has been difficult to feed the top cover tape with stability or collect the same into the collecting box with stability. In a particular case where a tacky material is left on one surface of the top cover tape that has been adhered to the carrier tape, the top cover tape may cling to one of the two rotatable members that contacts the tacky surface of the top cover tape, thereby interfering the feeding of the same, or cling to an wall surface of the collecting box that defines an introduction passage through which the top cover tape is collected into the box, thereby interfering with the collecting of the same into the box. Thus, the prior top-cover-tape feeding and treating devices suffer from the problem that the reliability or stability of feeding or treating of the top cover tape is low.